3 Top Tips to Improve Focus & Productivity

It’s unlikely to be news to you that as a collective we struggle with the ability to focus and that the problem has only become more pronounced as the global pandemic has progressed.

It’s a subject that has come up again and again in my work with global clients, organisations and audiences over the last 8 years as a Business Owner and for more than 10 years in my professional career in Financial Services.

Perhaps you can resonate with one of the following challenges around focus and productivity in general:

1. I’m easily distracted
2. I’m juggling so many things I don’t have time to focus
3. I’m too overwhelmed to focus
4. I’m just lazy
5. I love procrastinating and the pressure of a deadline
6. Most days I don’t know where to start

These are the top six challenges I hear over and over again, along with the seventh “I know what to do…but I’m just not doing it.”

Habit Loop

My Neuroscience mentors would describe this as being stuck in a habit loop. Doing the same thing over and over again. Telling yourself one or more of the above 'stories' either consciously or subconsciously so much so that you’ve become unfocused because you say you are. It becomes a self fulfilling phrophecy.

What you believe about yourself and what you believe is possible for you is creating your reality (aka your life)!

There is a difference between intellectually knowing something and physiologically knowing something.?

On one hand you know it but nothing changes and on the other hand you know it, take different actions and things change.

3 Ways to improve your ability to Focus

What I am about to share is the result of reading and researching this area for years as well as actively testing things out in my own life.

I am the scientist of my own life experience and I encourage you to be the same for yours.

?? Tip 1: Identify your Productivity Windows

Once I 'owned' the fact that I work well at the times that I work well, that those times may not be commonplace, available to everyone, fair, or even logical, EVERYTHING in my Business and life CHANGED.

Use the questions below to identify your productivity windows:

Q. What time of the day are you most productive? ?

Q. What times of the day are you naturally more focused?

Q. What times of the day do you have the most energy?

If you have trouble identifying when you are the most productive during the day, send me message and I'll be happy to share my Productivity Timetable.

Clarity creates Choices

Clarity also brings the ability to better understand yourself, look after yourself and live/work as the best version of yourself!?

We tend to look after others better than we look after ourselves and then wonder why we are overwhelmed, burned out, stressed out and not in love with our lives.

It’s not possible to achieve your ‘perfect schedule’ overnight, it takes time to experiment, it will also change as you change, your circumstances change, your desires change etc.

What this process gives you is the ability to create Success by Design .

You get to decide what success means to you and you get to decide how you want to design it.

?? Tip 2: Set Yourself up to Succeed

Your environment will dictate your ability to focus more than you realise.?

First dedicate an area of your home, office to work, this is a concept know as structural landmarking. You are telling your brain that this is where I work.

Second, make that space conducive to work by keeping it neat and tidy.

Third, create a ritual that sends a signal to your brain when it’s time to work. Some examples of this are getting dressed for work, turning on your desk light, putting on some binaural beats music, lighting a candle, or something?I find that works well for me is using a kitchen timer. The ticking sends a signal to my brain that it’s time to work, it’s time to focus I set the timer for 60-90mins, sit down and within minutes I’m in flow.

?? Tip 3: Turn off all your notifications

Studies have shown that it takes the average person around 20 minutes to settle into focus work and 20 minutes to refocus when distracted. There are also a number of neuroscientific reasons around the affect notifications have on our ability to remain focused, Dr Lynda Shaw is my go-to person for this (and all things neuroscience based) on Linkedin and Dr Roweshanak Hashimoon is my go-to person on Clubhouse.?

There is also something known as agitation that I first learned about from Professor Andrew Huberman at Stanford. He explains (I’ve paraphrased) that our brain enters a period of hesitation (agitation) before we settle down to our focus work. During this time (a few minutes) our brain is making an assessment about whether this activity is 'safe' and once it has been categorised as such we can focus.

It may not always be possible to turn off all of your notifications all of the time and/or at certain times of the day. As I said earlier, experiment, become the scientist. Use what you have available be it your team, your productivity windows, your creativity and work towards the design that you want.

Let me know in the comments below what your thoughts/questions are on the 3 strategies I have shared, or send me a direct message here on Linkedin. Also I'd love to know:

What have you tried, what helps you to remain focus?

What’s your biggest distraction?

What’s your biggest time management challenge right now and how could I help you be more productive??

See you next week

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"I loved reading Abigail's book and listening to her talk at the CEW group. It was a revelation to read the concepts and then understand my own habits so that I could change them, insight is the key to development. Understanding my behaviours around procrastination and being conscious of them means I can manage it. The time audit was a fantastic tool so that I could understand where time was utilised (or wasted!) was really helpful. So happy to have this in my toolkit! Thanks Abigail :)" Julie Wong

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